Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Owning an investment property is always a risky activity. Investment properties or rental properties can be a great income source if well maintained. Most of the investors and property owners fall in financial crisis due to lack of management and a proper landlord insurance that covers all of the damages and financial losses. Below are the 10 major steps to become a successful landlord.

10 major steps for landlords to follow

Step 1: Research

Do some necessary research before buying an investment property. Most of the professional investor does that before acquiring one. Research would help you to learn about state and rental low, responsibilities as an owner. Taxes, insurance policies, management costs etc. If you lack proper research the property you bought may not come as profitable as you think.

Step 2: Find Property

Finding a rental property that is perfect for you can be difficult. The key to buying a good investment property is to do your research, find out what types of property is selling around your area. Don’t buy property in place which is unfamiliar to you. You can seek help from the lenders and mortgage insurers. They have valuable data about investment properties in different locations.

Step 3: Register Your Property

After buying your investment property you must register your property to get a business license. To obtain a rental license you should apply to the state or county business department. Get your housing permission from the corresponding department and also register your property with the local tax office. A tax attorney and state business officer may be able to help through license and permit processes.

Step 4: Decorate Property

A well-decorated home will always rent for top dollars. There is always a high demand for the fully furnished rental homes. Paint with natural colours, install high-quality appliance to attract high-end tenants. Consider creating extra bedrooms to rent as group houses, because group houses will always rent for more money than family houses.

Step 5: Select Tenants

Start taking applications from tenants. To make sure you don’t rent your property to the bad tenants perform a tenants screening process and check tenants background history. You should run a credit check to determine debt and late payment history of the tenants. You may collect information from their former landlords. Select the most qualified applicant who is also the best fit for your property.

Step 6: Collect Rent

After you have selected appropriate tenants for your property, make sure to sign a lease and collect an earnest money deposit. It is the best way to make sure that the tenants will stay for a particular period of time. Collect your rent regularly. You can set up an online system to collect your rent. Consider collecting rent regularly rather than one-time rent payments.

Step 7: Perform Repair and Maintenance

The most important part to make your investment property profitable is maintaining it properly. Many landlords often lose their tenants due to lack of maintenance. Act immediately if any repairs needed. It will help you to keep a good relationship with your tenants. You may consider hiring a property manager. Property managers have the necessary knowledge and resources to act on repairs and maintenance. They are capable of finding any errors including bad tenants and can research for you to grow your business.

Step 8: Pay Taxes

Don’t forget to pay your regular taxes otherwise, the state will sue your property. You should file a tax return with your state government. Pay your local license fee and annual property taxes.

Step 9: Get Proper Landlord Insurance

Damages can be done to your property anytime by natural disasters or manmade disasters. Make sure that you take a proper landlord insurance cover for your property. Landlord insurance is designed to protect rental properties from the damages and rental losses. With help of the best value landlord insurance, you can save hundreds of dollars and that could be a lifesaver in case of any accidental events. A landlord insurance can cover you from the following cases:

Natural disasters like flood, earthquake, tsunami, storms etc.

Manmade disasters like fire, riot etc.

Damages by tenants

Burglary or theft

Malicious damages

Legal Liability

Before taking a landlord insurance from an insurance agency or broker you must compare prices with different companies. Take the insurance which is the best fit for your property and always go for the low insurance quotes. For more information about landlord insurance talk to the specialists at St George Underwriting Agency.

Step 10: Repeat

Follow all the steps one by one and implement them carefully. These steps repeat every time you buy a new investment property. To become a successful landlord initiate these steps and mental processes. Grow your profits and buy another rental property and repeat this cycle over again.

Though investment property is a great source of cash flow it is a risky business at the same time. But you can eliminate the risks if you implement all the processes discussed above. A rental property can pay for your retirement and you can leave a financial legacy for your family.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

The lean technique was first adopted by Toyota which offers very easy tools to analyse the steps of workflow within an organisation to see if any of the steps can be minimised or eliminated. Lean refer to creating more value with fewer resources.

Lean manufacturing which is also referred to lean production offers businesses a chance to increase their profits with the fewer resource by sharpening the work process and minimising waste. Lean training courses help organisations on their roadmap for success and teach how to make use the least of resources to create more value.

Lean thinking is methodically proved of reviewing all activities and work processes within an organisation and looking at how every little task is implemented as well as the bigger tasks and making sure that they are done in the most efficient way.

Implementation of Lean Manufacturing

The concept of lean manufacturing adopted for maximising the utilisation of resources while minimising the waste. Lean manufacturing tools and training enables organisations to achieve more with the fewer resource and also fulfil the customer’s need which is the core of any business model. Appropriate implementation of lean manufacturing reduces the time of production process, costs and give the opportunity to do the tasks with less effort. Because of the rapid change in the business environment, the organisations are forced to face the challenges and complexities. Any organisation whether it is manufacturing or service oriented depends on its ability to respond to these challenges to survive.

Although there is no standard roadmap for lean manufacturing, every organisation either big or small could have their own value stream mapping for lean manufacturing. The analysis should be done before developing a road map. Analysis helps to identify the areas opportunity of the business. To identify the production gaps and areas of opportunity organisations may require a lean expert. Lean experts are highly trained and capable of finding out the areas of opportunity where lean manufacturing should be implemented. However, the road map of lean manufacturing could be developed by facility analysis and common sense. Bellow, some steps are listed as road map organisation can make use of it:

Team formation (Team members must have the lean manufacturing or relevant business experience)

Developing a communication channel for the team members

Finding out resources

Determining waste across the entire system

Process mapping

Creating a list of necessary equipment

Determining the effects of equipment on overall process

Setting up the time management

Analysing the production quality

Error implementation

Developing standardised operation

Improvements of facility and work process

The above road map is only an example. The best practice to increase the business profit is having a plan and creating an own lean road map. The path of lean manufacturing will not be straight and it is an endless process.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Being a rental property owner can be profitable and also a risky activity at a time. There are many issues that plague property owners and toss fear into the hearts who want to be the landlord. But don’t worry every rental problem has a solution.

Here are the 5 major problems that most of the landlords will eventually experience, along with the ways to prevent them.

Loss of Rental Income

Landlords can lose their rental income for rent default, tenant hold-over and vacant property for rent. To reduce vacancy you need to list your vacant units for rent at least 60 days prior to the end of the current lease. You need to screen tenants carefully to filter deadbeat or scammer on the property. Terminate the tenants immediately who does not pay their rent regularly with proper notice. You should be careful about the local eviction process and be ready to file the paper works after lease termination.

Property Management

Keep your property up to date and manage well. Your property can be damaged by the following reasons:

Cleanliness of Tenants

Destruction of property intentionally or unintentionally

Violence issues

Tenants lying to you

Unfaithful tenants

Illegal drug use

To resolve these issues you have to be careful about property management. Visit your rental property at least once per month. You should consider listing tenants cleaning responsibilities. Do not afraid to call the cops if there are any issues. Find a local landlord-tenant lawyer to prevent any law issues. Monitor and screen your tenants carefully. Collect your rent time to time.

Tenant Turnover

Finding new tenants can be a hard and sensitive activity. If you are looking for new tenants start earlier when the property is still occupied. Schedule showing your rental property back to back after every 30 minutes. Probably you should consider putting some advertisement for your property.

Repairs

Act fast if there’s any need of repairs. It can make you a good landlord. Buy a handy tool box and keep it in your trunk to repair some minor issues. If there’s any big issue hire a professional. You may consider hiring a property manager to monitor your property and perform a repair if needed.

Be Respectful to the Laws

Be respectful to the rental laws. Don’t try to avoid laws because you can get away with it for a while but eventually, it will catch up to you. Learn the laws properly. You may consider joining to a local landlord association, rental property association or investor association to build a network with other landlords.

Proper Insurance

The most important part is getting a proper landlord insurance for your rental property. Most of the landlords suffer financial losses for not getting a proper landlord protection insurance. Try to take insurance for your every property from the same insurance provider to get a better rate. A landlord insurance can cover all of your financial losses including rent default and damages to your property caused by tenants, nature or third persons.

If you stick to all the advice mentioned above you can surely avoid the problems that landlords face most of the time and you can set a good example of a landlord.